1.
Capcom
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Capcom Co. Ltd. or Capcom, is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. Originally established in 1979, it has become an international enterprise with subsidiaries in North America, Europe. Capcoms first predecessor, I. R. M Corporation, was founded on May 30,1979 by Kenzo Tsujimoto, Tsujimoto named I. R. M after his other company Irem Corporation which he founded earlier in 1974 and remained with until 1983. In January 1989, the old affiliate company Capcom Co. Ltd. merged with Sambi Co. Ltd. resulting in the current Japanese branch. While Capcoms first product was the coin-operated Little League from July 1983, its first real video game, since then, Capcom has created 15 multi-million-selling game series, the most successful of which is Resident Evil. Capcom has been noted as the last major publisher to be committed to 2D games, the companys continued commitment to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as its platform of choice caused them to lag behind other leading publishers in developing 3D-capable arcade boards. In 1994, Capcom adapted its Street Fighter series of fighting games into a film of the same name, while commercially successful, the production received almost universal criticism. A2002 adaptation of its Resident Evil series faced similar criticism but was successful in theaters. The company sees films as a way to build sales for its video games, Capcom partnered with Nyu Media in 2011 to publish and distribute the Japanese independent games that Nyu localized into the English language. In August 27,2014, Capcom filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Koei Tecmo Games at the Osaka District Court for 980 million yen in damage, Capcom claimed Koei Tecmo Games infringed a patent it obtained in 2002 regarding play feature of the video games. Later, games developed internally used to be created by several numbered Production Studios, in addition to these internal teams, Capcom also commissions outside development studios to ensure a steady output of titles. It also has the Ueno Facility, an office in Iga. The international Capcom Group currently encompasses 15 subsidiaries in Japan, North America, Europe, affiliated companies include Koko Capcom Co. Ltd. in South Korea, Street Fighter Film, LLC in the United States, and Dellgamadas Co. Ltd. Suleputer, a marketing and music label established in cooperation with Sony Music Entertainment Intermedia in 1998, publishes CDs, DVDs. Capcom also owns numerous arcade game known as Plaza Capcom, including one in Narita, Futtsu. An annual private media summit called Captivate, renamed from Gamers Day in 2008, is used as a platform for new game. Capcom launched its Street Fighter franchise in 1987, the series of fighting games are among the most popular in their genre, and have sold over 30 million units. That same year,1987, the company introduced its Mega Man series, selling nearly 30 million units, the series serves as Capcoms flagship franchise
2.
Video game music
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Video game music is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was limited to simple melodies of early sound synthesizer technology. With advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and film scores, while simple synthesizer pieces are still common, game music now includes full orchestral pieces and popular music. Music in video games can be heard over a title screen, options menu. Today’s soundtracks can also change depending on a player’s actions or situation, Video game music can be one of two options, original or licensed. In order to create or collect this music, teams of composers, music directors, today, original composition has included the work of film composers Harry Gregson-Williams, Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer, Josh Mancell, Steve Jablonsky, and Michael Giacchino. The popularity of game music has expanded education and job opportunities, generated awards. At the time video games had emerged as a form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical medium in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes. Such components were expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use making them less ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases. Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion, an early example of such an approach to video game music was the opening chiptune in Tomohiro Nishikados Gun Fight. The first game to use a background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikados Space Invaders. It had four descending chromatic bass notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and interacted with the player, the first video game to feature continuous, melodic background music was Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980, featuring a simple tune that repeats continuously during gameplay. The decision to any music into a video game meant that at some point it would have to be transcribed into computer code by a programmer, whether or not the programmer had musical experience. Some music was original, some was public domain music such as folk songs, Sound capabilities were limited, the popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, was capable of generating only two tones, or notes, at a time. As advances were made in technology and costs fell, a definitively new generation of arcade machines. This was further improved upon by Namcos 1982 arcade game Dig Dug, Dig Dug was composed by Yuriko Keino, who also composed the music for other Namco games such as Xevious and Phozon. Home console systems also had an upgrade in sound ability beginning with the ColecoVision in 1982 capable of four channels. However, more notable was the Japanese release of the Famicom in 1983 which was released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985
3.
Game engine
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A game engine is a software framework designed for the creation and development of video games. Developers use them to games for consoles, mobile devices. The process of development is often economized, in large part, by reusing/adapting the same game engine to create different games. In many cases game engines provide a suite of development tools in addition to reusable software components. These tools are provided in an integrated development environment to enable simplified. Game engine developers attempt to pre-invent the wheel by developing robust software suites which include many elements a game developer may need to build a game, most game engine suites provide facilities that ease development, such as graphics, sound, physics and AI functions. Gamebryo, JMonkey Engine and RenderWare are such widely used middleware programs, however extensibility is achieved, it remains a high priority for game engines due to the wide variety of uses for which they are applied. Some game engines only provide real-time 3D rendering capabilities instead of the range of functionality needed by games. These engines rely upon the developer to implement the rest of this functionality or assemble it from other game middleware components. These types of engines are referred to as a graphics engine, rendering engine. This terminology is used as many full-featured 3D game engines are referred to simply as 3D engines. A few examples of engines are, Crystal Space, Genesis3D, Irrlicht, OGRE, RealmForge, Truevision3D. As technology ages, the components of an engine may become outdated or insufficient for the requirements of a given project. Since the complexity of programming a new engine may result in unwanted delays. Such a framework is composed of a multitude of different components. The actual game logic has to be implemented by some algorithms and it is distinct from any rendering, sound or input work. The rendering engine generates 3D animated graphics by the chosen method, before hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, software renderers had been used. Game engines can be written in any programming language like C++, C or Java, though language is structurally different
4.
MT Framework
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MT Framework is a game engine created by Capcom. MT stands for Multi-Thread, Meta Tools and Multi-Target, the visuals of the first games powered by the engine were well received and MT Framework has also won a CEDEC award. Throughout the years MT Framework received various updates, most significant of which was a major revision called MT Framework 2.0, additionally, two offshoots of the engine have been made. MT Framework Lite targets the Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles and MT Framework Mobile powers games for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita and iOS. Before the creation of MT Framework, Capcoms internal development teams were each using engines and tools of their own design, thus, the decision to build an engine that would support the needs of all of Capcoms developers was made. At first MT Framework was being developed to be used in Dead Rising and Lost Planet, as such, the decision to further develop MT Framework and extend its internal use was made. Development of MT Framework had begun in September 2004 based on the Onimusha 3 engine, the engine was built to use PC development tools and initially target the Xbox 360 system because of its similarity to the PC platform. In 2004 the project had started by just one programmer but in the following years, because of its PC development tools, video games can first be programmed on the PC and then adjusted to run on console hardware. MT framework supports multithreading techniques to take advantage of the multicore CPUs that are powering both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 consoles as well as modern PCs. Speaking about Lost Planet, Extreme Condition and its use of MT Framework, a light motion blur effect called 2. 5D motion blur is supported to help smooth 30 fps games. Light-Space Perspective Shadow Maps, a form of mapping, is used for the rendering of the shadows. Basic physics are handled by the integrated Havok middleware, while a custom physics engine handles character-local physics calculations such as cloth physics and inverse kinematics. However, Resident Evil 5 under DirectX10, was the first video game to be presented fully in stereoscopic 3D, including all of its cutscenes, later re-releases of the two games on PC removed DirectX10 support. A major update to the engine called MT Framework 2.0 began development in January 2008, in Capcoms 2011 annual report, it was confirmed that 80% of MT Frameworks development process is common between the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms which reduced development costs. Lastly, Capcom made possible for the first time, for external contract studios that would partner with them to use the engine, the first externally developed game to use MT Framework 2.0 was Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Fate of Two Worlds. The PC version of Lost Planet 2 added support for DirectX11 features such as tessellation, displacement mapping, later MT Framework 2.0 games released on PC were DirectX9 only. Another significant update was made for Dragons Dogma, released in 2012, previous MT Framework games were stage-based with each stage divided by a loading screen. Another improvement is that the engine moved from using a forward renderer to a one that makes use of deferred lighting
5.
Computing platform
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Computing platform means in general sense, where any piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the system, even a web browser or other application. The term computing platform can refer to different abstraction levels, including a hardware architecture, an operating system. In total it can be said to be the stage on which programs can run. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware, platforms may also include, Hardware alone, in the case of small embedded systems. Embedded systems can access hardware directly, without an OS, this is referred to as running on bare metal, a browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a platform, but this is not relevant to software running within the browser. An application, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, which hosts software written in a scripting language. This can be extended to writing fully-fledged applications with the Microsoft Office suite as a platform, software frameworks that provide ready-made functionality. Cloud computing and Platform as a Service, the social networking sites Twitter and facebook are also considered development platforms. A virtual machine such as the Java virtual machine, applications are compiled into a format similar to machine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM. A virtualized version of a system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software. These allow, for instance, a typical Windows program to run on what is physically a Mac, some architectures have multiple layers, with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it, however, the JVM, the layer beneath the application, does have to be built separately for each OS
6.
Nintendo 3DS
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The Nintendo 3DS is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. It is capable of displaying stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or additional accessories, Nintendo announced the device in March 2010 and officially unveiled it at E32010 on June 15,2010. The console succeeds the Nintendo DS, featuring compatibility with older Nintendo DS. Its primary competitor is the PlayStation Vita from Sony, the Nintendo 3DS was first released in Japan on February 26,2011, and worldwide beginning in March 2011. Less than six months later on July 28,2011, Nintendo announced a significant price reduction from US$249 to US$169 amid disappointing launch sales. The company offered ten free Nintendo Entertainment System games and ten free Game Boy Advance games from the Nintendo eShop to consumers who bought the system at the launch price. This strategy was considered a success, and the console has gone on to become one of Nintendos most successfully sold handheld consoles in the first two years of its release. As of September 30,2016, the Nintendo 3DS family of systems combined have sold 61.57 million units. Several redesigns have been made since, the Nintendo 3DS XL, an entry-level version of the console, the Nintendo 2DS, with a fixed slate form factor and lacking autostereoscopic functionality, was released in Western markets in October 2013. Nintendo began experimenting with stereoscopic 3D video game technology in the 1980s, the Famicom 3D System, an accessory consisting of liquid crystal shutter glasses, was Nintendos first product that enabled stereoscopic 3D effects. Although very few titles were released, Nintendo helped design one—called Famicom Grand Prix II, 3D Hot Rally—which was co-developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory, the Famicom 3D System failed to garner market interest and was never released outside Japan. Despite the limited success, Nintendo would press ahead with 3D development into the 1990s, gunpei Yokoi, creator of the Game Boy handheld device and popular Metroid video game, developed a new 3D device for Nintendo called the Virtual Boy. It was a portable system consisting of goggles and a controller that used a spinning disc to achieve full stereoscopic monochrome 3D. Released in 1995, the Virtual Boy sold fewer than a million units, spawning only 22 compatible game titles, the failure of the Virtual Boy left many at Nintendo doubting the viability of 3D gaming. Despite this, Nintendo continued to investigate the incorporation of 3D technology into other products, the GameCube, released in 2001, is another 3D-capable system. With an LCD attachment, it could display true stereoscopic 3D, due to the expensive nature of the requisite peripheral technology at the time, the GameCubes 3D functionality was never marketed to the public. Nintendo later experimented with a 3D LCD during development of the Game Boy Advance SP, another attempt was made in preparation for a virtual navigation guide to be used on the Nintendo DS at Shigureden, an interactive museum in Japan. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi encouraged additional 3D research in an effort to use the technology in the exhibition, although the project fell short, Nintendo was able to collect valuable research on liquid crystal which would later aid in the development of the Nintendo 3DS
7.
Action-adventure game
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The action-adventure video game genre includes video games that combine core elements from the action and adventure genres. With the decline of the game genre from mainstream popularity. It is not uncommon for gamers to apply the term adventure or action adventure to describe the genre of fiction to which a game belongs, typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve, with very little or no action. If there is action, it is confined to isolated minigames. Pure action games have gameplay based on real-time interactions that challenge the reflexes, therefore, action-adventure games engage both reflexes and problem-solving, in both violent and non-violent situations. An action-adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action game and an adventure game, especially crucial elements like puzzles. Action-adventures require many of the physical skills as action games, but also offer a storyline, numerous characters, an inventory system, dialogue. They are faster-paced than pure adventure games, because they include both physical and conceptual challenges, action-adventure games normally include a combination of complex story elements, which are displayed for players using audio and video. The story is heavily reliant upon the characters movement, which triggers story events. Some examples of games include The Legend of Zelda, God of War. Exactly when a game stops being a game and becomes an action game is a matter of interpretation. There are quite a few disagreements in the community and in the media over what constitutes an action-adventure game. In some cases a game with puzzles will be classified as an action-adventure game. Others see action games as a genre, while an action-adventure is an action game that includes situational problem-solving. Adventure gamers may also be purists, rejecting any game that makes use of physical challenges or time pressure, regardless, the action-adventure label is prominent in articles over the internet and media. The term action-adventure is usually substituted for a particular subgenre due to its wide scope, although action-adventure games are diverse and difficult to classify, there are some distinct subgenres. These are sometimes called Real-Time Adventure games or RTAs for short, notable examples of this include Metroid Prime, Half-Life 2, Dishonored, and Far Cry 3. Third-person action-adventure, in gameplay is in the third-person
8.
Mega Man Legends 2
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Mega Man Legends 2, known in Japan as Rockman DASH2 - Episode 2, Great Inheritance, is an action-adventure game released by Capcom in 2000, acting as a sequel to Mega Man Legends. It was released for the PlayStation in 2000 for Japan and North America, unchanged Japanese ports of the game were also released for the PC in Japan and parts of Asia in 2003 and for the PlayStation Portable in 2005. The game features Mega Man Volnutts quest to find four keys hidden in the planet in order to aid in the search of the Mother Lode, a legendary treasure thought to be an infinite energy source. Critical reception to Mega Man Legends 2 has overall been positive with video game publications praising how the graphics, additionally, the games story was praised for how complex it is in comparison to the ones from the original series. The gameplay in Mega Man Legends 2 is very similar to that of its predecessor and has a few changes, the player controls the protagonist Mega Man Volnutt in his explorations through ruins and fights against Reaverbots. The ruins, however, are various islands in contrast to the prequel in which most ruins belonged to Kattelox Island. The player is able to travel to islands with Rolls ship. The license allows Mega Man to enter into ruins which are forbidden to lower-class Diggers, additionally, when winning a license, the Reaverbots health is higher, but once they are destroyed, they drop more refractors shards which are used in shops to buy items. Mega Mans interactions with characters can also affect the characters state depending whether he is good with other people or makes them angry. Mega Man is also able to grab objects or people which help the player to complete missions, Mega Man can also suffer from special damage when fighting Reaverbots or touching fields that damage him such as lava. If the player equips Mega Man specific body part, he will become invulnerable to such states, another addition is the underwater dungeon, in where the objects weight is reduced and Mega Man can jump higher. The energy of the weapons, which are developed by Roll using unusable items, are now shown in two energy bars, one green and one blue. The blue bar indicates how much energy the weapon has, while the bar shows how much energy is consumed when the weapon is used. Mega Man Legends 2 brings back characters from its predecessor. Rolls grandfather, Barrel Caskett, also appears alongside his old friend Werner Von Bluecher in search of the Mother Lode, a legendary treasure supposed to have infinite energy. Other characters include Yuna and Sera, whose purposes remain unknown during the start, as well as the Master. Barrel recognizes a reporter, Yuna, as his lost daughter, Matilda Caskett, Yuna escapes with her servant, a Reaverbot flying machine-like being named Gatz to break the windows for her escape. Ignoring her warning Bluecher continues to the center of the island, Yuna orders Gatz to give warning shots but due to the hostile retaliation of the Sulphur Bottom, Gatz damages the engine, forcing the airship to descend to the island below
9.
Nintendo
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Nintendo Co. Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is one of the worlds largest video game companies by market capitalization, founded on 23 September 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small businesses, such as cab services. The word Nintendo can be translated from Japanese to English as leave luck to heaven. From 1992 until 2016, Nintendo was also the majority shareholder of Major League Baseballs Seattle Mariners, as of 31 March 2014, Nintendo has cumulative sales of over 670.43 million hardware units and 4.23 billion software units. The company has created and released some of the best-known and top-selling video game franchises, such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo was founded as a card company in late 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. The handmade cards soon became popular, and Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards to satisfy demand, in 1949, the company adopted the name Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd. doing business as The Nintendo Playing Card Co. outside Japan. Nintendo continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan and organizes its own contract bridge tournament called the Nintendo Cup. In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, visited the U. S. to talk with the United States Playing Card Company and he found that the biggest playing card company in the world was using only a small office. Yamauchis realization that the card business had limited potential was a turning point. He then acquired the license to use Disney characters on playing cards to drive sales, in 1963, Yamauchi renamed Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. to Nintendo Co. Ltd. The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital during the period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company called Daiya. However, Nintendo was forced to sell it because problems with the unions were making it too expensive to run the service. It also set up a hotel chain, a TV network. All of these ventures failed, and after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, playing card sales dropped. In 1966, Nintendo moved into the Japanese toy industry with the Ultra Hand, Yokoi was moved from maintenance to the new Nintendo Games department as a product developer. Nintendo continued to produce toys, including the Ultra Machine, Love Tester
10.
1UP.com
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1UP. com was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, 1UP. com provided its own features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews. The site was created by Ziff Davis as an extension of Electronic Gaming Monthly, 1UP was sold in 2009 to Hearst Corporations UGO Networks, who was acquired by IGN Entertainment in 2011. Coming full circle, Ziff Davis acquired IGN Entertainment as a whole in February 2013, shortly after the acquisition, however, Ziff Davis announced that in an effort to concentrate on IGN, it would shut down most of its secondary sites, including 1UP. Remaining staff members from 1UP were to be transferred to IGN, 1UP. com had produced a variety of audio and video podcasts, many of which aired weekly. 1UP Yours was the networks flagship internet radio show which featured topical discussions among several editors from the 1UP network, as well as personal gaming experiences and current news items. Though many guests circulated throughout episodes, the show was hosted by Garnett Lee, Shane Bettenhausen, new episodes of the show were made available every Friday. Former hosts included Jane Pinckard, John Davison, Luke Smith, Mark MacDonald, however, since the UGO acquisition in January 2009, many of these podcasts/shows were suspended, or in some cases, ended. In late October 2009, a new flagship podcast was created by David Ellis, audio podcasts included Games, Dammit. and Retronauts Live. Video podcasts included 1UPs Game Night and The Daily 1UPDate
11.
Keiji Inafune
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Keiji Inafune is a Japanese video game producer, illustrator and businessman. Starting his career at Capcom in the late 1980s, his job was as an artist, in many early game credits, he uses the name INAFKING. The first Capcom game he worked on was the original Street Fighter in 1987 and he was then an illustrator and artist of the Mega Man series during the NES and Super NES era, also creating the character Zero. After the departure of long time producer Tokuro Fujiwara, Inafune then moved onto the position of producer with his first title being Mega Man 8 in 1996 and he would act as producer for several subsequent Mega Man games. He then went on to be the head of Research & Development, in addition to Online Business, Inafune was also a producer of the Lost Planet, Dead Rising and Onimusha series. After leaving Capcom in 2010, Inafune founded his own companies Comcept and Intercept, at Comcept and at Intercept, Inafune is the creator of Mighty No.9 and the upcoming Red Ash, The Indelible Legend games. Since founding Comcept, he is given the credit of Comceptor on the games he has worked on. Born in Kishiwada, Osaka, 22-year-old Keiji joined the Capcom corporation not long after graduating, in 1987 and his first assignment as graphic designer was Street Fighter, and the character Adon was the only one fully designed by him. Inafune joined the producing the first Rockman game. Akira Kitamura, director for the created the original static pixel art sprite for Mega Man. This was to ensure that the sprite could be seen against the games backgrounds. After that, the art was handed over to artist Inafune. Inafune refers to process as like a reverse character design as it is the opposite of what typically occurs. During a special event at TGS2007, Inafune clarified his role in the creation of Mega Man, im often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom, he explained. My mentor, who was the designer of the original Mega Man, had a concept of what Mega Man was supposed to look like. So I only did half of the job in creating him, due to the small task force, he also constructed the characters into pixel form, as well as the games respective logo, package design, and instruction booklet. As the Famicom was a gaming system, only 56 colours were available for display. This affected the decision of the team to color the character blue, the design of Mega Man was also heavily influenced by Japanese animation, and he notes that he took observations from other video game characters present at the time, such as Mario
12.
New York Comic Con
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The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006, ReedPOP is involved with other events, including Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo and PAX Dev/PAX East/PAX Prime. ReedPop and New York Comic Con were founded by Greg Topalian, the first con was held in 2006 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Due to Reed Exhibitions lack of experience with comic conventions, attendance was far more than anticipated, despite crowding on Friday afternoon, tickets continued to be sold due to low pre-reg numbers, and the non-counting of professionals and exhibitors. The main exhibition hall hit capacity Saturday morning and was locked by the marshals until people left. Major guests, including Kevin Smith and Frank Miller, could not enter the main hall, the line to enter the convention wrapped around the building with waits of two hours to enter, and many were turned away. Ticket sales for Sunday were suspended, Reed announced that additional space would be acquired for the 2007 show. The second con was held in 2007, with the convention organizer booking double the floor space than the previous years space, the show on Friday was again only open to industry and press until 4 p. m. when it opened to the public. Due to better planning, advance sales were controlled. Lines started forming at midnight Saturday to enter the convention, and by Saturday morning, crowding was a problem in the Artists Alley, which was off the main convention floor, causing it to be moved to the main floor for 2008. The American Anime Awards, hosted by New York Comic Con, was held on February 24 at the New Yorker Hotel, the third con held in 2008 moved to April, continued to grow, and occupied most of the main level in the Javits Center. Stan Lee was awarded the inaugural New York Comics Legend Award at the Times Square Virgin Megastore before the Comic Con, kids Day programming was added to the convention on Sunday with the help of Kidss Comic Con. The fourth con held in 2009 returned to February and featured a charity art auction to support The Hero Initiative, the New York Anime Festival, previously a separate event created by Reed, was also merged into Comic Con. The main floor of the center was split by a large construction area due to repairs to the Javits Center. Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge – New York took place in Comic Con 2011 and it featured eSport tournaments for games such as StarCraft II, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike. In 2011, the convention was expanded to four days, the first day of the convention was initially limited to press, professionals, and fans that purchased a four-day pass. This changed in 2013, when single day Thursday passes were put on sale for the first time. With this addition, attendance at New York Comic Con grew to over 130,000, in 2016, it was announced that everyone attending NYCC2016 would be required to complete a Fan Verification profile
13.
Nintendo eShop
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The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U and Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011, the eShop was enabled by the release of an update that added the functionality to the Nintendo 3DSs HOME Menu. It is the successor to both the Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop, unlike on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was made available on the launch date of the Wii U, although a system update is required in order to access it. The Nintendo eShop features downloadable games, applications and information on upcoming film, the Nintendo eShop icon appears as part of the HOME Menu on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS and requires an Internet connection to access. Initially, the two versions of the Nintendo eShop between the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U were independent of each other. The eShop stores a record of all downloads and purchases, allowing users to re-download previously purchased software at no additional charge, provided the software is still available on the eShop. Downloads can be started immediately, or they can be queued up, users upgrading from a Nintendo DSi system can transfer their previous DSiWare purchases to the Nintendo 3DS, with limited exceptions, such as Flipnote Studio and the DSi web browser. A December 2011 update enabled a similar feature allowing users to transfer their purchases between 3DS systems, prior to the implementation of Nintendo Network ID for the Nintendo 3DS in December 2013, only five transfers between Nintendo 3DS systems were permitted. The limit on system transfers has since been permanently waived, unlike the Wii Shop Channel and the DSi Shop services, which use Nintendo Points for purchases, the Nintendo eShop lists pricing in the appropriate regional currencies, such as dollars and euros. Accounts can be funded using either cards or prepaid cards purchased in stores. The Nintendo eShop can be accessed any time via the HOME menu screen, even when a game is already running and this feature, however, is only available on Wii U. Currently,10 downloads can be queued up at a time, the status of the downloads can be checked on the HOME menu under the Download Manager. If notifications are activated, a message will appear in the top right corner of the screen to notify the user that a download is finished. The Nintendo eShop supports user reviews of games, applications, after an eShop title has been acquired and used for at least one hour, users can then submit a review consisting of a crescent range of one to five stars, representing the titles quality. Users can also categorize games by age and gender, and as being suitable for hardcore or casual gamers. Wii U has Miiverse integration for user reviews on the Nintendo eShop, on September 13,2012, during a Japanese Nintendo Direct presentation, Satoru Iwata introduced a new dimension to Nintendos online offering, called Deluxe Digital Promotion /Nintendo Network Premium. It is a loyalty program similar to PlayStation Plus offered on PlayStation Network, the promotion was available through March 31,2015. The program was discontinued on April 1,2015 and the URL just leads to a discontinuation message and these can be applications, videos, or games
14.
Nintendo Power
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Nintendo Power is a discontinued news and strategy magazine which was initially published in-house monthly by Nintendo of America, and later independently. In December 2007, Nintendo contracted publishing to Future US, the American subsidiary of British publisher Future and it was one of the longest running video game magazines in the United States and Canada, and was Nintendos official magazine in North America. On August 21,2012, Nintendo announced that it would not be renewing its agreement with Future Publishing. The final issue, volume 285, was released on December 11,2012, predating Nintendo Power is the several-page long Nintendo Fun Club News, which was sent to club members for free. However, in mid-1988 Nintendo Fun Club News was discontinued after seven issues in favor of Nintendo Power, the first issue, dated July/August 1988, spotlighted the NES game Super Mario Bros.2. 3.6 million copies were published, with member of the Nintendo Fun Club receiving a free one. From the beginning, Nintendo Power focused heavily on providing game strategy, tips and tricks, reviews, in mid-1998, Nintendo Power first allowed outside advertising in the magazine, formerly reserved for Nintendo-based products only. In its early years, ads appeared in the first and last few pages of the magazine. In July 2005, Nintendo Power created a new design to appeal to a limited gaming audience, including a new logo and article format. Nintendo introduced a new incentive promotional offer that involved the registration of three Nintendo products through Nintendo. com to receive a three issue trial subscription to Nintendo Power. Later, the changed its focus from game strategies and cheat codes to mainly news, previews. The magazine was edited at first by Fun Club President Howard Philips, Nintendo Powers mascot in the late 1980s and early 1990s was Nester, a comic character created by Philips. After Philips left the company, Nester became the sole mascot. Early issues of the featured a two-page Howard and Nester comic, which was later replaced with the two-page Nesters Adventures, later reduced to one page. Subsequently, Mario replaced Nester as the mascot of the magazine, later, during the early 2000s, the magazine made another mascot out of its Senior Writer, Alan Averill. Apparently very camera-shy, Averill himself never appeared in any photos, rather, fans often clamored to see what Averill actually looked like, but the magazine continued to substitute with photos of the toy, and even claimed that Alan was, in fact, a Blue Slime. Eventually, Averill retired from Nintendo Power, joining Nintendo of Americas localization department, to this day, most fans have never seen a real image of Averill. The inclusion of a photo of Mr. T in the Players Pulse section became a gag in the early half of 2005
15.
Twitter
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Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, tweets, restricted to 140 characters. Registered users can post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them, users access Twitter through its website interface, SMS or a mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, in 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has described as the SMS of the Internet. As of 2016, Twitter had more than 319 million monthly active users. On the day of the 2016 U. S. presidential election, Twitter proved to be the largest source of breaking news, Twitters origins lie in a daylong brainstorming session held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then a student at New York University. The original project name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr. The developers initially considered 10958 as a code, but later changed it to 40404 for ease of use. Work on the project started on March 21,2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9,50 PM Pacific Standard Time, Dorsey has explained the origin of the Twitter title. we came across the word twitter, and it was just perfect. The definition was a short burst of inconsequential information, and chirps from birds, and thats exactly what the product was. The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as a service for Odeo employees. Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitters startup until 2011, Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview, With Twitter and they called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didnt replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is, Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network, the tipping point for Twitters popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000, the Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages, remarked Newsweeks Steven Levy
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Destructoid
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Destructoid is a Webby Award-winning independent news website, that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez. It is part of the ModernMethod network, Destructoid was owned by Yanier Gonzalez so that he could attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2006. After being rejected, Gonzalez began writing editorials and drawing cartoons which were picked up by established gaming blogs like Joystiq. In 2007 the site relaunched with user blogs, forums, yaniers blog was moved off the home page in favor of a staff-edited, multi-author format. Similar to IGN, Destructoid offers free registration and readers can submit off-homepage blogs, after E3, Gonzalez appeared at the press conference dressed as Mr. Destructoid to hand out promotional flyers. Gonzalez was the first to break the news of Jack Thompsons disbarment, Destructoid posts an average of 50 stories a day. It was among the first to break stories such as the Nintendo Wii controllers final design and its original editorial work gained mainstream syndication including the web show Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin. Destructoid reviews editor Jim Sterling ran a weekly podcast with associate editor Jonathan Holmes, when Jim Sterling left Destructoid, the podcast was taken over by a new host with much less frequent updates. In 2008, Jim Sterling, a Destructoid editor, took part in a sponsored gaming marathon raising money for cancer patients. Raising $3,000 for the charity, Sterling and friend John Kershaw played a selection of games from the SingStar franchise, the event was broadcast live online for the duration of the event. In 2009, Niero, and other Destructoid editors continued the gaming marathon tradition on October 17–18 for cancer awareness raising $4,835.60 for Extra Life childrens hospital in Texas, in 2010, the Destructoid office hosted a 24-hour gaming marathon for the charity Extra Life. Community members raised over $6,000 for Childrens Miracle hospitals in Texas, Destructoid has also partnered with Revision 3 to build a clean water well in Africa through the Charity Water organization. In 2011, Destructoid hosted another marathon for Extra Life, raising $6909.16 for Childrens Miracle hospitals, in 2012, Destructoid hosted a 56-hour livestream on its Dtoid. tv channel, which raised over $7,000 for Habitat for Humanity. The Gonzalez flew to Costa Rica and assisted the build of a 32-house government project for families living in poverty in Liberia. Destructoid has been nominated for awards in video game coverage. The site was nominated for the inaugural Games Media Awards in 2007 under the “Non-Commercial Website or Blog” category, Destructoid was also selected as an Official Webby Honoree in the Games-Related category of the 11th Annual Webby Awards in 2007. They were nominated by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences in 2009 in the same category, the sites mascot, Mr. Destructoid, has appeared in various console, mobile, and PC video games. Mr. Destructoid later appeared in Bomberman Ultra, the PlayStation 3 port of Bomberman Live, Mr. Destructoids head is available as an unlockable helmet in PixelJAMs game Dino Run, by entering the password totinos in the cheats menu
17.
G4 (U.S. TV channel)
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G4 was an American digital cable and satellite television channel that was owned by G4 Media, a joint venture between the NBCUniversal Cable division of NBCUniversal and Dish Network. The channel was geared primarily toward young adult viewers and originally focused on the world of video games. G4 was headquartered in Los Angeles, in late 2012, G4s studio programming ceased in preparation for its relaunch as Esquire Network on September 23,2013, as part of a licensing deal with Hearst Corporation, owner of Esquire magazine. In August 2013, it was reported that approximately 61,217,000 American households were receiving G4, according to a statement by some of the remaining providers carrying the network, G4 would end all operations on November 30,2014. Programming ceased at 11,59 PM ET on December 31,2014, the channel was launched on April 24,2002 under the ownership of Comcast. The initial concept was to create a similar to TechTV. The channel was launched with a nonstop Pong marathon being shown on the channel for a whole week, then, on May 1,2002, G4 first aired the following shows, Arena, a multi-player game competition between two teams of four players. Filter, a top-ten countdown voted by viewers, blister, focused on action/adventure game news. This was the first show to air on G4, cinematech, described as a showcase for the best high-end digital art. Game On, two hosts competed in video game come to life with dire consequences for the loser. Sweat, focused on game news. Tips and cheat codes on video games, Portal, focused on multiplayer online games. Pulse, news on the video-game industry, Judgment Day, currently known as Reviews on the Run, two video-game gurus will opine on the latest entries. G4tv. com, a talk show on video games. G4 was created and originally led by Charles Hirschhorn, a president of Walt Disney Television and Television Animation. He expected video game creators themselves to produce programming for the channel. He envisioned that G4 could follow in the footsteps of MTV, Hirschhorn intended G4 to become a vehicle for unconventional advertising. In 2002, G4 offered advertisers wide latitude to place their products on G4s programs, G4 offered what was called a 2 minute unit, which was an advertising package played as if it were part of a G4 program that was long enough to run an entire movie trailer
18.
Joystiq
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Joystiq was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOLs primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general, after declining readership, it was announced that Joystiq would be shut down on February 3,2015, as part of moves to downsize AOLs operations by shuttering its underperforming properties. However, none of three initial weblogs were ever aggressively marketed, and The Video Games Weblog made its final post on May 18,2005. All three blogs are now listed as On Hiatus/Retired in the Weblogs, Inc. directory, david Touve, the primary contributor to these early blogs, would later act as Joystiqs features editor for a short time in late 2005 before resigning due to the birth of his child. However, being a separate and wholly video game-related entity, Joystiq allowed for much more analysis of the video game industry than the primarily consumer electronics-oriented Engadget. While Joystiq had featured content as early as April 2, the blog is not officially considered to have been launched until Rojass public revelation on Engadget on Wednesday, Weblogs, Inc. was acquired in October 2005 by America Online. For the next three weeks this trend would continue, with PSP Fanboy launching on November 28, WoW Insider on December 6, and DS Fanboy on December 12. On February 15,2006, a blog was introduced, Revolution Fanboy, while March 29 heralded the arrival of PS3 Fanboy. On January 26,2006, Joystiq coined the phrase DS phat, on November 2,2007, Massively was launched to cover MMOs in general. On January 27,2009, the Fanboy sites were rebranded and integrated directly into the main Joystiq site, DS and Wii Fanboy were merged into Joystiq Nintendo, as were PSP and PS3 Fanboy merged into Joystiq PlayStation, and Xbox 360 Fanboy became Joystiq Xbox. Until 2010, these continued to feature specialized posts in addition to relevant content from the main Joystiq site. On June 11,2010, as part of the new Futurestiq iteration of the site, in January 2012, Ludwig Kietzmann became the editor-in-chief after Grant left to form a new video game news website with Vox Media, owners of The Verge, known as Polygon. On January 27,2015, Re/code reported that Joystiq was among the sites that were likely to be shut down as part of this restructuring plan, readership of Joystiq had seen sharp declines, falling by at least 18% over the previous year. It is expected that future gaming-oriented coverage will be assumed by Engadget, after the shutdown, on February 10,2015, the staff of Massively launched a successor site, Massively Overpowered, dedicated to the continuation of their MMO coverage. Thomas Schulenberg and Sam Prell maintain the blog on the weekends as the weekend editors, the original format for the Joystiq Podcast was hosted by Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin Hoops McElroy. The three would discuss various gaming-related news stories, segments included, What Have you Been Playing. Brush With Fame, The Big Three, The Do It Line. various podcasts have included guests from other gaming websites such as CheapyD, Chris Remo, Stephen Totilo, Rocco Botte, Tom Chick and Shawn Andrich but they stopped doing them. Over time, the format evolved to include more off-the-cuff discussion
